ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some of our thinking about working with the transferential dramas that Eric Berne referred to as "psychological games". It proposes that the therapist's participation in a game can become an important avenue for "hearing" the client's unspoken communication. Clinical experience has led us both to discover the inescapable presence of ourselves in the therapy room. Berne's game theory attempts to explain complex intersubjective dynamics, dynamics that bridge the space between client and therapist, between speech and action, thinking and feeling, mind and body, and also conscious and unconscious realms. Relational Transactional Analysis views the therapy relationship as an encounter between two psyches with each partner contributing consciously and unconsciously to this process. Patterns belonging to both client and therapist emerge in the consulting room and become the intersubjective vehicle for expl oration and understanding. The difference in experience between each degree is reflected in the therapist's countertransference.
